Age, Gender, Immigration Status, Visible Minority Status and Religion as Predictors of Economic Position in Canada and the USA at 1901 and 2001

Charles Jones, University of Toronto
Stella Park, University of Toronto

Social Demographers have been preoccupied with the relationship between race and economic position since at least the publication of Blau and Duncan’s The American Occupational Structure. Since then the study of race differences has been broadened to include ethnicity and visible minority status, while gender has emerged as a major problematic in the study of social organization and economic inequality in the public sphere. This paper uses large samples from the US Censuses of 1900 and 2000 and the Censuses of Canada for 1901 and 2001 in order to focus upon the economic position of three visible minority groups (Aboriginal, Black, Oriental) enumerated in both Censuses at both time periods. We compare the occupational status and other “means of living” outcomes achieved by these visible minority groups, in comparison with the numerically dominant White population. The Canadian data also allow us to report on the role of religion.